Crimson Day
by TheEliteKamikaze22
Summary: Konohagakure has fallen. The world as Team Kakashi knew it was over. Everyone they cared for was dead. The Third, Iruka, Sakura's parents...everyone and they don't even know why it happened. Takes place just after the Wave arc. NaruIno SasuSaku
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is the start of my second fanfic, I have this one, The Scars Never Heal and Fade to Black. I have a complete inability to write more than one at once however, so which ever one gets the most reviews in one week will be wrote FIRST, the others will be continued either way. It will just be after I finish the winning fic. There may also be a poll on my profile, not entirely sure yet **

**Summary: Konohagakure has fallen. The world as Team Kakashi knew it was over. Everyone they cared for was dead. The Third, Iruka, Sakura's parents...everyone and they don't even know why it happened. Takes place just after the Wave arc.**

**P.S Remember kids, If an evil snake man offers you power, tell him no. He only wants you for your body. **

Kakashi listened idly as his genin charges chatted amongst themselves, their first C-rank mission had not gone as well as he hopped. Hell it hadn't even really been a C rank, in less than two hours it turned into a A-rank mission. But against his better judgment he let them continue on with it anyway. That was a mistake.

'_I'm a failure as a sensei, Sasuke almost died, Naruto had to use the Kyuubi's chakra to survive and I didn't even bother with Sakura at all. She could walk up and down tree easily after the first day, I should have taught her the water walking exercise, but I didn't. I could have prepared her for what was coming, but I didn't. I'm a__ failure plain and simple. But I will make it right. I will train them better. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if i don't_'

Sasuke would be the easiest, with his sharingan he could learn a lot of jutsu in a short amount of time and Naruto was determined enough to learn anything just through willpower alone. His giant chakra reserves helped a lot though.

Sakura would the be the hardest, she was practically designed for medical jutsu, but he had no talent there and with her low reserves, most of his ninjutsu were off limits to her. Genjutsu was the one place he could truly help her with, it wasn't his specialty but he definitely knew a few and If he could get her stamina and strength up then advanced taijutsu or kenjutsu might be an option but that would be a good ways down the road.

He sighed, that would be a lot of work, '_maybe I could just sign her up for medical jutsu training at the hospital...No, no, I can't shy away form the work again. I will over see her training myself, maybe the hospital could be a side thing, if she wanted_.'

He began to go over a new training schedule in his head, making sure to add teamwork exercises to the list when he heard Naruto and Sasuke arguing. Naruto and Sasuke argued constantly, though it seemed to be born more out of habit now and less out of general dislike of each other like in the past. That was a start.

"NARUTO STOP ANNOYING SASUKE-KUN." The pink haired girl yelled "But Sakura-chan that bastard started it." "Don't call Sasuke-kun a bastard Naruto-baka." Sakura hit Naruto over the back of the head.

Sasuke watched with a slight bit of amusement albeit hidden amusement as Naruto fell to the ground with a large lump on his head. He didn't hate his teammates as much as he used to, he even begrudgingly respected Naruto because of how hard he worked.

Sakura was still a fan-girl though, for the life of him he couldn't understand why she couldn't get that he was simply not interested in her. He eyed the pink haired girl as she pummeled the blond idiot. Well it could be worse he figured, she could treat him like she treated Naruto. He barley hid his grimace when she landed a particularly nasty right hook.

The Uchiha frowned he could see the village now, the place didn't hold the fondest memories for him. It was after all, the place where his entire clan was murdered in cold blood by his own brother. His mind was taken off of his dark past when Naruto began the ritual of asking their pink haired teammate out. How he could get the shit beat out of him by her and then immediately ask her out was beyond him.

"Oi Sakura-chan, do you want to go on a date when we get back to the village?" The blond jinchuuriki asked with enthusiasm. He wasn't sure why he asked her so much, but he did. Always expecting a rejection and a fist to the face. But maybe this time would be different, that was what he said to himself, though he never thought that it would be.

Sakura smiled cheerily at the blond, "Sure Naruto, I'll go on a date with you." She said in the sweetest voice she could muster.

Kakashi froze when he heard her answer, his one eye visibly widened. Sasuke almost fainted and Naruto was simply staring at the girl in shock "huh" he manged to mutter.

"I said I would go on a date with you...just as soon as Sasuke goes on a date with me." She said with a smile. She wasn't stupid, by the time she convinced Sasuke to go out with her, Naruto would have totally forgotten what she said.

Kakashi was sure that this was not healthy behavior for a genin team to have. While it was slightly funny, it would drive wedge between them. He should probably make it rule to not date your teammates.

Finally after the pause the blond shouted with a joy. "Why are you so happy dobe? I'm not going to go on a date with her." The raven haired boy said.

The blond still had a goofy smile on his face "Because she didn't outright say no. I'm Making progress."

Sasuke caught himself before he could smile. Naruto's logic, however flawed, did make a little sense. The raven haired Uchiha turned his gaze on Sakura, expecting another one of her violent beatings to befall the blond. However he was shocked to see the girl had a smile on her face.

"Sakura...Your smiling, I figured you were gonna hit me again." The blonde said, sounding confused.

Sakura wanted to get mad, she really did but she had hit the blond imbecile enough for one day so instead she settled for playfully punching him in the shoulder. "Is that better, Naruto-baka?"

Kakashi smiled at the display of friendship even though it was small one, maybe there would be hope for some teamwork and friendship in this team yet. He turned his eyes back to the village in front of them, The village gates were easily visible now, the large walls that surrounded the village and the gate guards...the gate guards were laying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

Kakashi quickly crouched threw his hands out to stop the genin in their places. "What is it Kakashi-sensei?" The now crouching Naruto said a little too loudly. "The Gate guards are dead." Kakashi said quietly.

"Wh-what?" Sakura said, her voice trembling. _'Does that mean the village is being attacked?'_ Sakura thought, worrying about her parents. She looked over to Sasuke, he had a stoney expression on his face. A kunai was gripped tightly in his hand.

She turned her gaze to Naruto, he looked strange, he didn't have his goofy grin, instead there was a small frown. She couldn't believe he hadn't freaked out and started running blindly towards the village. After all he had bum rushed a ANBU level Shinobi who, if not for Sasuke and Naruto, would have killed Kakashi.

"Here,take these." Kakashi said in a disturbingly serious tone. He handed each of the genin an ear piece. "stay hidden. If you see anything radio me. I'm going to investigate...if I don't contact you in 15 minuets, run, go back to wave." With out waiting for a response the man shot towards Konoha with speed only Sasuke could follow.

The genin quickly hid themselves in the Forrest that surrounded Konoha."What do you think is going on Sasuke-kun?" The pink haired girl asked nervously. "Just stay quiet Sakura." The Uchiha said with a cold edge in his voice. He instinctively activated his sharingan.

"You can feel it too, can't you Sasuke?" Naruto whispered, "Something is really wrong" the Jinchuuriki's voice was shaking slightly. Sasuke's eyes shot to the blond, "Yeah..." The Uchiha whispered back with a nod. It reminded of the night his clan massacred, the same sense of dread that he felt then, he was feeling now.

"GET UP YOU LAZY ASS, WERE ALMOST AT THE VILLAGE." A voice shouted suddenly and angrily from the forest behind them. Sakura's eyes widened with shock, she knew that voice, It was Ino.

"You guys heard Ino too right?" Naruto asked suddenly, shocking both Sasuke and Sakura. "How did you know that was Ino's voice, Naruto?" Sakura asked incredulously, she didn't know that he knew Ino's voice well enough to tell.

The blond threw his hand behind his head sheepishly, "Well, I did hear her yelling about Sasuke a lot back in the academy, plus she is the only person in Konoha that loud." The blond said with his goofy grin back on his face, the present danger and situation forgotten by all but Sasuke.

"I can think of one person who is louder." Sakura muttered under her breath, then a thought hit her "What if they try and go into the village!? They could get hurt! We need to warn them!" Sakura said worriedly, Ino may be her rival in love, but she was still her best friend.

"They have a jonin with them, Sakura. They will be fine." Sasuke shot her a glare as he spoke, this wasn't the time to worry about nothing, any jonin worth his salt would see the bodies, or at the vary least realize there were no guards at the gate.

"But what if they don't have a jonin with them?" Sakura asked. "Maybe I could send a clone to warn them?" Naruto offered helpfully.

Before Sasuke could reply, Kakashi's voice came across the radio, _"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, there are no signs of hostiles inside, I'm going to check for clues as to what happened. Do not enter the village, I repeat, DO NOT enter the village."_ The edge in his voice was frighting to the three genin, not that they would admit it.

Sasuke listened to the voice of his sensei intently, it was clear to him that there was something their sensei was not going to tell them, either there was a really dangerous enemy in the village or there was something in there he didn't want them to see. Either way he didn't want them going in the village.

If there was a strong enemy in the village, one strong enough to have Kakashi so on edge, then he might be able to kill Kakashi. Sasuke still needed Kakashi, he wasn't strong enough to kill Itachi yet, so he still needed a teacher. That meant he couldn't let Kakashi die.

Luckily he knew where there was Jonin in the area. "I think Kakashi might be in trouble. Naruto send a clone to tell Ino and her team whats going on, tell there sensei that Kakashi might need back up."

"Who the hell made you the boss, Teme?" Naruto asked angrily.

"Just send one Dobe." Sasuke shot the blond a glare

Naruto growled lowly, "Fine, asshole." The jinchuuriki made the clone seal and channeled a fraction of his chakra into the jutsu, creating two clones. "Ah dammit I still can't make just one" with a sigh, Naruto tossed a kunai into the extra clone.

Shrugging off the minor headache he gave his orders to the clone, to which it gave a mock salute and took off into the direction of Team Ten.

(BREAK)

Yamanaka Ino was not happy, her hair was a mess. she was dirty, and she smelled bad. _'Stupid week long mission'_ she thought angrily. It was just a simple C-rank, but it was in the middle of freaking nowhere. One of The Border Patrol Chuunin was stealing from the rich dignitaries while no one was looking

The mission had been easy enough, they caught him in the act. That wasn't the problem, the problem was that they had to stay hidden until they caught him. That meant no hotsprings, no beds, no nothing, she wasn't even allowed to brush her hair but once a day! It wasn't like she didn't know this would happen, she was a shinboi, it came with the life, but that didn't mean she had to like it!

But to make her already bad mood worse, they were finally getting close to the village and Shikamaru refused to stand the hell up and get moving, it was so frustrating!

"Ino, will you please stop screaming?" Shikamaru asked, sounding annoyed. He quickly realized that was a mistake, judging by the face Ino made...

"NO I WILL NOT STOP SCREAMING UNTIL YOU STAND THE H-MMM" Ino was cut off mid rant by a hand landing on her mouth, much to her disgust.

She quickly grabbed the wrist of her 'attacker' and jerked him into her view "Naruto?" her face would have been amusing to the jinchuuriki under any other circumstance.

Asuma had seen the boy coming at the last second, he was surprised by how little noise he had made, but he was even more surprised by the serious look on the kids face. He had seen Naruto enough to know he was never serious.

"Ino, you have to be quite" Naruto ignored the clear glare she sent at him "Jonin-san, The village may be under attack, The gate guards are dead, Kakashi-sensei is inside and he may need backup."

Asuma quickly spit out his cigarette, before he could respond however Ino took off running towards the village, knocking the clone to the ground, dispelling it.

All she could think about were her parents, she didn't even stop to realize she would be charging head first into a gruesome graveyard.

(BREAK)

Naruto knew Ino was going in the village, he didn't know how he knew it, but he knew it. He couldn't let her get hurt. Not because of him. So he ran, as fast as he possibly could, if he could beat her to the gates he could stop her from going in, so that's what he had to do.

Sasuke saw Naruto take off running for the village, apparently something had happened, and as much as he hated the idiot, he couldn't just let him go into a situation that could kill him without at least attempting to help.

"Sakura, follow." with the simple command Sasuke shot like a lightning bolt after the quickly fading orange image of his teammate, with a confused Sakura following closely behind.

(BREAK)

Kakashi could smell blood and burning flesh before he even set foot inside the gates, the stench actually burnt his nose, and it only got worse the closer he got to the village. By the time he actually got inside it was almost unbearable, and it was easy to see why.

The streets were littered with bodies of shinobi and civilian alike, decapitated, cut in half, burned to a crisp, Kakashi had never seen a slaughter like this, not even during the Third Shinobi World War. What concerned him the most however, was that there wasn't the first sign of an enemy, no enemy bodies, no inconsistent blood patterns, nothing.

The priority in this situation was to find the Hokage first and foremost. If the Hokage had fallen, or was unable to issue orders, then he was to search for enemies, survivors and information. Maybe memorizing all the proper and obscure protocol when he was young would finally pay off.

Before he would do any of that however, it was important he radio his team, this could destroy the mind of a genin should they stumble upon this scene. _"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, there are no signs of hostiles inside, I'm going to check for clues as to what happened. Do not enter the village, I repeat, DO NOT enter the village."_

He didn't wait for a response, there wasn't time. In one quick motion he pulled the radio off and crushed it in his hand. He had company to deal with.

"That wasn't smart, protecting your team like that. You could have ordered them to help you." A deep monotone voice rang out from behind Kakashi.

Kakashi could _feel _the intense chakra coming off this guy, and that was saying something since he wasn't a sensor. "Maybe so, but my sensei said that those who leave their comrades behind are worse than trash."

Without warning, Kakashi turned to throw a kunai at the head of the man, only for him to find no one there.

"I can respect your sensei's belief system, sounds like something Sarutobi would say... You should know I'm sorry about all of this, If I could, I wouldn't follow through with it."

"Then why do you?" Kakashi asked, if he could get him talking, maybe he could find him. Kakashi waited for a response, focusing his ears, in an attempt pinpoint the location of the enemy.

"I'm afraid you have to die now." Kakashi turned in an instant and blocked the incoming blade with a kunai. The man lashed out with a kick knocking Kakashi back a few feet. For the first time, Kakashi stood face to face with his attacker, and presumably one of the people who had attacked the village.

He was a tall, fair-skinned man with white, shaggy hair, he wore armor emblazoned with the Senju symbol worn over a simple black suit, with a distinctive white fur collar. This armor was constructed from numerous blue metal plates, formed into multiple protective guards along his body. This was accompanied by sandals and a happuri engraved with the Konoha emblem, in the place of the more traditional forehead protector.

Standing before Kakashi was The Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. The copy-nin was struggling with the very idea, this was a man of legend, the creator of The Kage Bunshin, The Flying Thunder God Technique and the... the Edo Tensei.

That was the only way Kakashi knew how someone could come back from the dead. Perhaps he was jumping to conclusions, and it was just a henge, a really good henge.

"So you reconsigned me." Tobirama stated as if it were a matter of fact. "and now your contemplating if this is a henge, right? Its not. I was summoned to the land of the living by man named Orochimaru, along with my brother, and his rival, _Uchiha Madara,_"

Kakashi noted that was the first time his voice betrayed any emotion, the man clearly hatedMadara. Then a thought occurred to Kakashi "The Edo Tensei was your creation, can't you break it?"

Despite the small ongoing conversation, neither one allowed their guard to drop. "I did break it." Tobirama suddenly grabbed his head and dropped to the ground in pain. He clinched his eyes tightly and let loose a low growl as he began to shake violently.

Kakashi saw an opening that he had to take. he pulled up his headband, revealing his sharingan. His hand erupted in a light blue ball of lightning and he shot forward with extreme speed and stabbed his Riakiri through the chest of The Second Hokage, effectively destroying his heart. The shaking body of the kage relaxed and went limp.

Kakashi expected blood, a lot of blood, instead, much to his surprise he only saw floating dust and ash. In an instant Tobirama seemingly came back to life, he wrapped his left hand around the wrist of Kakashi and locked eyes with him.

Tobirama's eyes had changed, gone were his dark red eyes, they had been replaced with purple eyes with a strange ripple pattern. Tobirama stood, his face not betraying any emotion. He placed his hand on a tanto strapped to his back, drawing it one quick motion.

Time seemed to slow for Kakashi as he began moving his hand to block the blade. Before he could however, he felt another presence behind him, holding his other hand back. He realized in that instant, he was going to die, there was no way around it. The blade got closer and closer to his throat, he could see it, but what good would that do if he couldn't stop it? Then he heard two words he never thought he would be happy to hear.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY"

His sharingan took in every detail as Tobirama's head snapped to side at an awkward angle. Tobirama was threw several yards through the side of a building. Kakashi, his wrist now free kicked back into the second man restraining him. It burst into smoke, revealing itself to be a shadow clone.

Kakashi fought the urge to smile when Gai landed beside him.

"Was that Senju Tobirama?" Gai asked, sounding surprisingly calm.

Kakashi replied with a nod. "He has been brought back by the Edo Tensai, he should start recovering soon."

The copy nin pulled out a small scroll from his equipment pouch. He unrolled the scroll in the direction of the building Tobirama had been thrown in. Between twenty and thirty kunai were unsealed and sent flying into the building.

Gai, already realizing what Kakashi was doing, began his hasty retreat. With Kakashi close behind, forming the ram seal as he did so.

In a glorious display of youth, the entire building went up in a fiery explosion, sending ruble and debris far into the sky.

(BREAK)

Asuma was close behind Ino, she wasn't very fast, at least not compared to him he could have caught her easily enough, and he would have, if hadn't been for the gigantic explosion going off somewhere from the middle of the village.

This was the point where he would be forced to choose between his responsibilities as a jonin sensei, or his responsibilities as protector of his village. It was the first hard decision he had to make since he left the Guardian Shinobi Twelve.

He may have chosen to stop Ino, to knock her out and take her back to Shikamaru and Choji, if hadn't been for Naruto following closely behind him, intent on stopping her himself.

This time he would have to trust Naruto to keep her out of the village. The boy was competent enough to talk her down, he was smarter than he let on, at least for Ino's sake he hopped the boy was.

With his decision made he took to the trees in an attempt to get the village as fast he could.

(Break)

Naruto hadn't been fast enough, she had made it inside the village. Not only that, her tunnel vision regarding her mother had somehow allowed her to ignore the carnage and gore that littered the streets and now Naruto had no way of finding her.

_'If only Sakura-chan were here, she would know where Ino would go.'_ as if on cue he heard someone emptying their stomach behind him.

Naruto turned to see his teammates, Sakura had been the one throwing up. She had tears welling up in her eyes that made it clear she wasn't handling this well at all.

Sasuke was a different story entirely. Unlike Naruto, who didn't seem to notice the bodies at all, Sasuke couldn't stop staring at them. He hid it well, but he was having flashbacks of The Uchiha Massacre. He could here the voice of his brother in his head, mocking him.

Sasuke could feel his hands begin to shake, he could feel the sweat forming on his brow and he unknowingly activated his sharingan. The anger, sadness and hate were welling up inside him, he was almost at his mental breaking point.

Luckily for Sasuke, the sound of Naruto's voice brought him out of his flashbacks and back into reality.

"Do either of you know where Ino lives?" The level of worry in Naruto's voice, made it clear to both of them that she had ended up in the village as well somehow.

Sakura appeared to regain some life at hearing her rivals name. "Her family has a house behind the Yamanaka Flower shop." Sakura managed to get out, though the words sounded rushed and there was shakiness in her voice.

Then a thought occurred to her _'What about momma and daddy?' _as soon as that thought hit her, she darted down the street, heading to her families apartment.

Sasuke cursed under his breath when she ran off. "Naruto! Go find Ino! Meet me at Sakura's house." Naruto watched Sasuke take off after Sakura, he wanted to follow, her, he wanted to believe that if something had happened to her parents that she would want to have him there just as much as Sasuke, but he knew that simply wasn't true.

So he reluctantly began his search for the Yamanaka.

It didn't take long for Naruto to find the flower shop, he had been there to meet a blonde guy with a long ponytail whenever his nightmares had gotten too much for him to handle when he was little. '_Sakura said her house was behind the flow-' _he line of thought was broke when his eyes came to rest onto the back Ino, standing just inside the door of the shop.

He could tell even from the distance that her shoulders were rocking, and as he got closer he could hear the sounds of her sobs.

That was always a weakness he had, he hated seeing people cry. Especially girls, and that went double for girls he knew. He never really got what he should do in situations like that. So when he actually got close enough to comfort her in someway, he just went with what felt right.

Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder. She didn't even seem to register that someone was touching her. That was when he saw why she was crying like she was. There was a woman laying on the ground in a puddle of her own blood.

The woman looked just like an older darker haired Ino, it was clearly her mother. Naruto had no idea what she must be going through, it must be hard to lose your mom, but he never had one in the first place.

He was at a loss, he didn't know what to do, he had never lost someone close to him, hell, he didn't even have anyone close to him until recently anyway. He was pretty much left with instinct on this one.

Without saying a word Naruto walked in front of his fellow blonde, allowing her to register that he wasn't an enemy, and then he pulled her into a strong hug, allowing her to lay her head on his shoulder as she cried.

He heard her weakly call him "Naruto-baka" under her breath, which he guessed was a good thing. At least she wasn't freaking out and trying to hit him, that was pretty much his only experience when it came to hugging girls.

The hug went on for a long while, Naruto knew right now was not the time to make jokes, or be restless. It was obvious even to him that Ino needed someone to hold onto, a shoulder to cry on. It wasn't something he was used too, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't enjoying being close to someone like this. However all things must come to an end, this one was just a more violent ending than most.

Naruto, although he wouldn't admit, wasn't the best shinboi ever, in fact he had many flaws, but his eyesight wasn't one of them. That was one the Kyuubi enhanced abilities that he would put to use on this day.

Because of his enhanced eyesight, he saw the barrage of kunai heading towards Ino's back from far enough away to have time to react. Not knowing what else to do, Naruto spun himself and Ino one hundred and eighty degrees around taking the kunai into his own back. Blood flew from the blond jinchuuriki and splattered onto the ground.

Ino's eyes widened when she saw the kunai hit Naruto, Naruto, the dead last of the academy, had just saved her life.

**A/N alright, finally got this done. Remember if you liked this and want it continued before the others to review. Feel free to read and review the others, I'm gonna set up a poll as well so vote on which one you like best there as well.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, I'm a little late, but this is a bigger chapter. Alright, I am officially declaring this fic the winner. I'm not surprised, this is the one I've put the most work into it anyway, and rereading the other two, it shows. Oh and just to be clear I do not now or will I ever own Naruto. On a side note, does anyone know what the plural of kunai is? By the way, I'm looking for a beta currently, if your interested, send me a pm.**

**And remember kids, if an evil snake man offers power you say no, he only wants you for your body.**

Ino didn't know what to think. The ninja life wasn't supposed to start this way, it wasn't supposed to be this hard this quick. Most of her home had been destroyed, at least three fourths, probably more of the populace was dead, including her own mother.

That was where she found herself now, standing at the feet of dead mother. She needed be strong, she needed to leave, go back to Shikamaru and Chouji, but she just couldn't. She was too weak, all she could do was stand there and cry. At least no one was around to see how weak she was though.

Then she felt a hand land on her shoulder. She would have attacked, if she hadn't sensed the massive chakra reserves of her former classmate. Naruto was probably the last person she wanted to see now, she barley knew him, and almost all of the previous interactions they had were negative. Not to metion he was annoying, very annoying.

As if proving her point, Naruto walked in front of her, blocking her mothers body from view. She wanted to yell at him to move, or hit him, or just do anything other than cry, but she couldn't even bring herself to lift her head.

Then he did something that she never would have expected. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and pulled her into a hug. To say Ino was confused would be an extreme understatement. She didn't want to be hugged...or maybe she did, she wasn't really sure at this point. All she knew was that Naruto was trying to comfort her and that was something she was grateful for. She just wished it was someone other than Naruto. But she was still grateful nonetheless.

She wanted to thank him, but she couldn't find the words, she couldn't really say anything long winded between her sobs anyway. still she attempted a thank you anyway "Naruto-baka," she started weakly..._'wait, why did I call him that? What the hell is wrong with me? He was just trying to help me, and I_ insulted _him? Kami he must think I'm a terrible person.'_

She expected him to yell at her, or at least do something other than keep comforting her, but he didn't. No, he only stood there, holding her, allowing her to pour all of her emotions out. The anger at herself and to a lesser extent her father for not being there to protect her mother. The sadness from the loss of well...everything.

Ino suddenly felt her feet leave the ground and her vision blurred as she and Naruto spun around partially. She was going to yell at the blond, but then she saw why he had done what he had done.

Six kunai impaled themselves into the orange clad back of the Uzumaki. Blood flew through the air and splattered onto the already crimson stained walls and floor of the flower shop. Naruto had saved her life, the class dobe had saved _her._

Out of instinct, Ino grabbed a hold of Naruto, hoisting one of his arms over her shoulders. She had no idea what to do at this point. Should she take out the kunai and try to patch up his wounds herself? '_Damn it, why doesn't the academy teach medical ninjutsu?'_ Ino thought angrily.

She didn't really have time to contemplate that though, seeing as there was an enemy incoming very quickly. Not to mention that her friend(?) was currently grunting in pain and going in an out of consciousness while she was holding him upright.

The approaching enemy's chakra was by far the strongest she had ever felt, the air actually seemed to get thicker as he approached them. It was unreal. Ino fought to catch her breath when he landed at the entrance of the flower shop. This man was overwhelmingly powerful.

The man was fair-skinned, a stark contrast to his long spiky black hair tied into a ponytail. His most striking feature however, was his red sharingan eyes. He moved swiftly towards the blond duo, his white robes fluttering in the breeze.

Ino knew fighting this man was suicide, he would kill her before she could hope to hit him. But she wouldn't go down without at least trying to fight.

The Yamanaka slowly and carefully set Naruto onto the ground before drawing a kunai and setting herself in a defensive stance in front of the blond jinchuuriki. She would probably die quickly, but she would defend her comrade to the death. That was the konoha way.

The man stopped his advance seeing Ino stand protectively over the fallen blond kid. It genuinely surprised him. He had been purposefully projecting his chakra and killing intent towards the girl, he expected her to run. He had actually been hoping she would run, he took no pleasure in killing children.

"My name is Uchiha Izuna, and you have earned my respect. It is a commendable thing, protecting your friend at the cost of your own life."

Ino wasn't stupid, the man may have said he respected her, but he also said he intended to kill her. She was sure he could make good on his hidden threat, but maybe if she could keep him talking she could come with a plan to save her and Naruto.

"D-did you kill my mom?" It was hard to say, but she really wanted to know the answer.

The man seemed taken back for a moment, "Was your mother a shinobi?" Ino shook her head no. "Then it wasn't me. I didn't kill anyone that wasn't a Konoha shinobi. It was most likely one of my brothers more sadistic allies...if it makes you feel any better I will kill them after they've outlived their usefulness."

Ino stood there, taking in the information. Then in what she hopped was surprise move threw her kunai directly at the head of the Uchiha. A move like that might have worked on a genin or maybe even a chuunin, as long as they weren't an Uchiha that is.

Izuna smirked as he effortlessly plucked the kunai from the air. "That was smart, trying to catch me off guard like that...I am sorry about this." In an instant the man was gone.

Ino's eyes widened when the man blurred in front of her, his hand wrapped around her throat tightly as he slammed her against the wall of the flower shop. His arm strained as he gripped the young girl's throat tighter and tighter, intent on strangling her.

Ino could feel her life slipping away from her. She had always thought it was stupid when people would talk about their life flashing before their eyes, she thought it was myth, but here she was, revisiting all her favorite childhood memories.

Her consciousness was fading, the world around her was blurry. Izuna was saying something, but she couldn't make out what. Just when she was about to accept her fate, she saw a blurry orange blob slowly rise.

For some reason Naruto's voice was easier for her to understand, "Drop her...NOW!"

Ino's senses were flooded with a malicious chakra. It terrified her, more than the thought of dieing ever did. This chakra, It promised death, in the most painful way possible.

"Jinchuuriki...unexpected." Izuna allowed a smirk to cross his face. _'This might actually be fun...' _He allowed the Yamanaka princess to fall and turned to face Naruto.

Naruto wasted no time, in a burst of speed the jinchuuriki launched himself at the Uchiha. Izuna casually sidestepped the bull rush by the young blond. The kid may have been fast, but to an Uchiha of Izuna's caliber, he might as well had been moving in slow motion.

Naruto, however angry he was, wasn't attempting to damage Izuna, he just wanted to get the Uchiha away from Ino. His priority was to get her to safety. Naruto wordlessly pulled Ino up and tossed her over his shoulder, and dashed out the back door of the Yamanaka Flower Shop.

It took about ten seconds for Ino to realize she could breathe again, and by then she was being carried lack a sack of potatoes at high speed across the rooftops of Konoha. She wanted to tell Naruto to set her down, but she knew that she couldn't run nearly this fast by her self.

Then she felt Izuna's chakra getting closer to them, "Naruto he's catching up to us!" A couple of seconds after that Izuna was close enough for her to see him. "Go faster Naruto-baka!" _'Damn it stop calling him that Ino.'_ Ino mentally scolded.

"I'm Trying Ino-chan!" Naruto was trying to force as much of the Kyuubi chakra out that he could, but the fox kept a damn tight hold on his chakra.

Ino chose to ignore the "Ino-chan" comment for the moment, reminding her self that it wasn't the time to start an argument. Izuna was getting closer by the second, and if she didn't think of something soon he would kill them.

True to Ino's line of thought, Izuna was currently contemplating the best way to kill them with little to no effort. He would need to get back and help kill the hokage soon, best not to expend to much energy on children.

_'I could probably kill the girl with a kunai now...' _Izuna thought. Part of him wanted to let them go, he couldn't shake the thought that they were just children, but he couldn't just let them go. They had saw him, they knew who he was, they would be vengeful, and vengeance was powerful motivator. With his mind made up, Izuna threw a kunai at the head of the Yamanaka girl.

Ino saw the kunai coming, but she couldn't do anything about it from her current position. Luckily though, she wouldn't have to. A senbon hit the kunai, deflecting it away from the girl, and Ino wasn't going question it, maybe kami just loved her.

Izuna watched impassively as his kunai fell harmlessly to the ground. That didn't surprise him, he saw the man coming a mile away. He was surprised however when a large flock of crows enveloped his vision. Normally it would be a minor annoyance, if it hadn't been for the man concealing himself inside the crows with a poisoned katana.

Namiashi Raidou lashed out with his katana in a flurry of swipes from the cover of the crows. Izuna dodged each and every strike expertly, even with his vision blocked.

_'I have to destroy the crows quickly, or this guy might become a problem.' _Izuna thought while he formed the horse seal "Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!" The Uchiha expelled a gigantic wall of fire from his mouth, propelling himself up into the sky as he did so.

Izuna watched a small satisfied smile as the crows were turned to ash, and with any luck, so was the guy trying stab a katana through his skull.

The jutsu had done major damage to the village, several buildings had been destroyed almost instantly and many more had been set ablaze, but he didn't see the body of the man with the katana...that worried him slightly. For a good reason too, apparently. Being as that he was behind Izuna with his katana ready to pierce his heart.

In mid air Raidou drove his katana through the chest of Izuna. A spray of blood shot from Izuna's chest and back, soaking Raidou in the crimson liquid. The scarred special jonin planted both feet firmly on the back of the Uchiha, kicking off him and doing a back flip to land safely on a nearby rooftop while Izuna plummeted into the fiery streets below. At least that was supposed to happen.

Instead, just before the fire could touch him, Izuna's body began rapidly decomposing, until it turned to dust. Raidou watched with slight confusion..._'Genjutsu!' _He realized just a fraction of a second too late. Luckily for him, he had comrades, and that was the only thing that saved him from getting a skull shattering kick to the back to of his head.

Genma had managed to block the kick thrown by the Uchiha at the last second. "You must be getting old Raidou, they say the mind is the first thing to go." Genma said with a slight chuckle. Sure it wasn't very professional, but it tended to make enemy's underestimate him if they thought he wasn't being serious.

"Now isn't the time for jokes, Genma." The scarred man spoke with slight annoyance. "Where's Aoba?"

"Chasing the kids, we're on our own." Genma said.

"Are you two done yet? I need to kill you and get back to help Madara." Izuna sounded annoyed by the duo. Unlike with Naruto and Ino, Izuna had no qualms about killing these two. He did however, have a small bit of respect for the one chewing on the senbon for blocking his kick so easily, so he was willing to let them finish their conversation before he killed them, that was the polite thing to do after all.

(BREAK)

"Naruto...you can put me down now...he stopped chasing us like two minuets ago." Ino said, a little uncomfortable by how long Naruto had been holding her. Not to mention his hand placement was annoyingly close to her butt.

Naruto came to a stop "sorry, Ino-chan." The jinchuuriki said, throwing his hand behind his head sheepishly while Ino slid off of his shoulder.

"Stop calling me that. Only my daddy and Sasuke-kun get to call me Ino-chan." Ino said sounding a little angry.

"When has Sasuke ever called you 'Ino-chan'?" Naruto asked.

"Just because he doesn't right now doesn't mean he isn't allowed to!" Ino's anger was now clearly evident from the harshness in her tone.

"Geez, Ino-chan, don't get all pissy about it.

"I can act however I want, you asshole!"

"Good god, what did I do to you?"

"Well let's see, You always insult Sasuke-kun, you chase after billboard brow, your so freaking loud all the time, should I continue? Because I can. You constantly shout about becoming hokage and your not even that good of a shinobi-"

"I was good enough to save your ass!"

Ino ignored him "and your an annoying pervert, and-"

"If I pick you up again will you stop talking?"

"You just want to get your hand on my ass again don't you, you perv." Naruto's faced turned a deep crimson at Ino's statement.

He was just now realizing that the entire time he had been carrying her that his hand been resting on her buttocks. "N-no, of course not, I'm not a pervert." The blush and the slight trickle of blood leaking from Naruto's noes seemed to contradict what he was saying.

Ino would have continued the argument if she hadn't sensed an incoming chakra source. "Naruto, someone's coming... he has a strong chakra signature...maybe even more chakra than the hokage."

_'Stronger than jiji? Son of a bitch! Why the hell can't I catch a break for once huh? Is that really too much to ask. _"Run, go to Sakura's apartment. Sasuke is there, he can protect you till Kakashi-sensei your sensei find you." He wasn't as delusional as he had once been, someone as strong as jiji would kill him pretty quickly, unless he could use the Kyuubi chakra again...then maybe he could hold them off long enough for Ino to get to safety.

Ino looked offended, "I'm a kunoichi, I can protect myself and I can help you fight!" Ino all but yelled at the blond jinchuuriki. It was annoying that the dobe wanted to protect her, she was a better shinobi than he was. Plus this guy was strong, possibly stronger than the hokage, she wasn't just going to let him die protecting her from someone like that. "We should just run, we can go to Sakura's apartment and hide out."

"We'll be leading a kage level shinobi to them that way...in wave...well I almost got us all killed and I won't do that again. You can run, I'll hold him long enough to where he might not be able to find you.

"Naruto, your annoying, but I won't just leave you to die!" Ino protested.

"You have people that care about you, that depend on you...I don't have anyone like that." Naruto said with a small sad smile. _'She needs to run. With that chakra I feel so powerful, but I get so angry...I might accidentally hurt her.' _Naruto thought with a shudder, they may not have been the best of friends, but he would never hurt a comrade.

Ino didn't really know how to reply to that. She hadn't ever really thought about how alone Naruto had been. That did explain why he wasn't as saddened as she was though. He didn't really have anyone to lose. "It's too late now, he will be here soon." Ino really wasn't sure how far away he was, but she had bluffed far better shinobi than Naruto. Now wasn't the time to leave him to die. Besides, she owed him, he had saved her life twice now.

"Fucking brats? That's who Izuna sent me after? FUCKING BRATS!?" A loud yell ripped through the air. The voice came form a man of average height with slicked back silver hair and distinctive purple eyes. "Jashin-sama won't be satisfied by just two brats, I promised him a glorious slaughter! And all I got to kill were the fucking academy teachers and more damn brats!. Well maybe I'll just kill him after he gets done with those other guys huh? See how that Asshole likes that." The man shouted into the air with anger.

"Ino, run now!" Naruto yelled, his voice suddenly becoming more feral

Ino suddenly felt that horrible chakra coming from her fellow blond again. It was awful, and there was more of it this time. The vile red chakra had enveloped Naruto, it even looked like it was boiling! And he had ears and a tail, a freaking tail of chakra.

_'What the hell is going on with you, Naruto? You seem so terrifying like that...'_ The Yamanaka princess contemplated her fellow blond's strange chakra.

the red tail of chakra whipped around violently behind the jinchuuriki as he bared his elongated canines at the jashinist. Then without warning he launched himself at the man intent on tearing his throat out with his clawed hand.

Hidan's face took on an expression of shock, then one of pure joy. He leaned back, letting the jinchuuriki's nails scrape his neck, drawing a slight bit of blood. "You're a fucking jinchuuriki...Leader will want me to take you alive. I will have to pray for forgiveness. At least I can still torture the girl righ-ugh!" Hidan was thrown back by a vicious kick thrown by the jinchuuriki.

"YOU WON'T FUCKING TOUCH HER!" Another tail of chakra erupted from Naruto, his rage building up, apparently voluntarily drawing on the Kyuubi's chakra left an opening for the demon to push more of the fowl chakra into his system.

Hidan smirked "I'm gonna enjoy your pain so fucking much!" He charged the blond with a large insane smile on his face, leaping into the air, he poised his scythe to cut into the blond.

Naruto however, would have none of that, he jumped back, and let loose an enraged chakra fueled roar. Naruto watched with a satisfied smirk as Hidan was blown back onto the ground with a thud.

The jashinist stood up and began cursing indigently "What the hell was that? Did your _roar_ knock me down? You're one weird little asshole aren't ya? I just can't wait to feel your pain!" Naruto replied with another chakra enhanced roar.

Ino was horrified by the Kyuubi influenced Naruto, but she wasn't just going to let him fight alone. She threw several kunai at vital points on Hidan, hoping that he was too focused on Naruto to notice them coming and with any luck, they would will him. Of course, that would have been way too easy.

Hidan was a loud foul mouthed asshole, but he wasn't blind, he had seen the attack coming a mile away, and he could have deflected it easily enough if it hadn't aligned so perfectly with a second chakra enhanced roar. The sudden burst of wind propelled the kunai faster than anything but sharingan eyes could follow. Hidan, quickly realizing he wouldn't be able dodge, focused chakra to his feet to firmly plant his feet to the ground.

The kunai didn't just hit there mark, they punched straight through. Blood sprayed from the significant wounds, covering the ground in the liquid. Each kunai hit a major vital organ, heart, lung liver...etc.

Ino was both excited and horrified. She was happy that he had been killed, but horrified because she had never killed anyone before, and this one happened to be rather brutal. Of course it was nothing compared to what she had already seen today, the mass murder of innocents tended to overpower the killing of one psychotic man.

Suddenly the man let out a cackle "YOU LITTLE FUCKING BITCH! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW BAD THAT HURT?"

Ino's previously excited face twisted into one of shock _'he's still alive!?'_

Hidan wasn't just angry, he was way beyond angry. These two brats had manged to land hits on him, _they _caused _him_ pain, that wasn't how this worked, they were supposed to share his pain. "Die you little bitch!" Hidan yelled as he threw his scythe at the young Yamanaka.

Ino swiftly attempted a dodge. She was fast for such a fresh genin, but not nearly fast enough to completely dodge the tri-bladed scythe. The longest blade managed to pierce her left thigh as she retreated. Ino let out a cry of pain and dropped to one knee, while fighting back tears from the pain.

Hidan licked his lips when he saw the blood splash onto his scythe. "Ha. How does that feel bitch?" He jerked his arms, forcefully pulling the scythe out of the young girl's leg. Ino let out a shriek of pain, even louder than the last.

The jashinist smiled with glee. _'Serves that little cunt right.'_

Naruto saw Ino get hit, he saw her blood...he saw that man hurt his comrade...his friend...Naruto was suddenly overcome with more rage than ever before. A third tail of chakra erupted from behind Naruto. Naruto began to feel his instincts start to take over, like the chakra knew what he was supposed to do. He stood and outstretched his arms, causing the chakra to extend out from his hands in the shape of clawed hands.

They twisted extremely fast through the air and latched onto Hidan, pinning him to the wall violently, almost slamming him threw it. Another chakra arm outstretched from the right one. This one grabbed a hold of the scythe and threw it, pulling it from Hidan's hand, sending it whirling out of sight.

"Hey! I spent years making that!" Hidan yelled out at the angry jinchuuriki. He make that little asshole regret that.

Another arm grew out from the two holding him against the wall, it slammed it's clawed hand onto the throat of the zealot. Clinching tightly, trying desperately to crush his throat. Hidan let out a low gurgle noise, making the Demon influenced Naruto smirk widely. Finally after several seconds, Hidan's neck gave under the pressure. His head crooked at an awkward angle as a crack echoed out.

Naruto's chakra arms let Hidan fall to the ground. The beast-like boy dropped back to all fours, staring at his prey, waiting for conformation he was dead.

Hidan, however, was Immortal, simply breaking his neck wouldn't kill him. "You fucking brat! YOU BROKE MY FUCKING NECK! Fuck leader, I'm sacrificing you to Jashin-sama!" The jashinist grabbed his own head and began twisting it violently until his neck popped back into place. His actual windpipe was still crushed though, not to mention the chakra burns everywhere the hands had touched him.

Naruto wasn't willing to give his opponent any time to recover. Before Hidan could even stand, a chakra fist impacted his head, throwing him back into the wall again. The fist drew back again, only this time Hidan knew it was coming. He skillfully ducked under the demonic chakra and began in a mad sprint towards the jinchuuriki. Deciding he was close enough to Naruto, Hidan pulled a retractable spear from his cloak and flipped into the air.

Hidan expertly positioned himself in Naruto's blind spot and with great joy he stabbed his spear through the sternum of the blond jinchuuriki. Naruto let out a horrible roar of pain as he dropped to the ground. Blood dripped from the jinchuuriki's new wound. He tried to stand, but Hidan pushed harder with his spear, forcing Naruto to the ground again.

"How do you like that motherfucker! Feels good don't it." The zealot yelled at his downed opponent. "Now i'm gonna sacrifice you to Jashin-sama, then your little bitch of a girlfriend, then I will hunt down everyone you care about and send them to Jashin-sama. It will be so much fucking fun to kill everyone you love!"

Naruto suddenly found his rage back tenfold so much of the demonic chakra was being pumped into his system he could hardly see straight. Then he felt something in him snap, as if a dam had busted open. It was exhilarating, so much strength...he had to use it...he had to kill...EVERYTHING!

Naruto's chakra cloak exploded with power, blowing Hidan away from him and throwing the spear violently from the wound as it healed. Naruto stood, the crimson chakra spinning wildly around him as he did so. His ears elongated, and another tail was slowly growing behind him. Soon Naruto began lose all human characteristics as the chakra deepened in color. Finally the fourth tail fully manifested and Naruto's version two form was complete.

Hidan smiled as he stood, shrugging off the major burns from Naruto's chakra. "Come and get some you fucking freak!" the jashinist yelled out in a belligerent manner. He would later regret those words.

The Kyuubified Naruto let loose a roar and slammed his arms onto the ground. "What the fuck is that supposed to do?" Hidan yelled at the beast. Then he got his answer as two giant chakra arms burst from the ground and gabbed a hold of the zealot, digging his claws deeply into Him.

"LET ME GO YOU MOTHERFUCKING BITCH" Hidan yelled in vain at the jinchuuriki. The beast seemed to smile at his protesting. With the arms holding Hidan in place there was nothing to stop the Kyuubified Naruto from going for his strongest attack in this form. He wanted nothing more than to destroy the zealot, he desired it from the bottom of his soul.

The beast stood on two legs and began to shake violently, expelling small black and white balls of chakra. Hundreds of them filled the air and began floating about peacefully. The four tailed beast suddenly opened its mouth, causing the floating orbs to start combining into a ball.

At that point, Hidan was starting to panic he had heard of the Tailed Beast Ball, he wasn't sure if he could survive being hit by it. Sure he was supposed to be immortal, and he had survived having his head cut off three times before now, but this thing could annihilate him. He was sure he couldn't survive total disintegration.

He began to struggle, trying his best to free himself from the grasp of the chakra constructs. "Let me go Motherfucker! You can't kill me, I am an immortal I am-" Hidan shut his mouth for the first time since the battle began when the ball condensed from the size of a basketball to that of baseball. Then the beast swallowed the ball, causing the ground to crack and break under him.

Hidan remained silent, he couldn't think of anything to say, for the first time since the Jashin cult had found him as a small child, he was at a loss for words. _'Am I gonna die?'_ Hidan thought with worry. He had never faced a legitimate threat of death before, he was supposed to be able to survive anything.

As if answering his unspoken question Naruto swelled larger and larger. Steam began leaking from his mouth until he released a consecrated beam of energy tearing up the landscape and everything else in its way until it hit Hidan.

The beam overtook Hidan's entire body along with everything behind him for a good half a mile. Dust and various other debris filled the atmosphere. Smoke rose high into the sky, high enough for people to see for miles.

When the dust and smoke finally cleared, nothing was left but dirt and ash. The landscape had been utterly destroyed. All the buildings, the roads everything the beam had touched was turned to rubble, And all that was left of Hidan was his ribcage and partial chest cavity held in the hands of the chakra arms. The kyuubified Naruto roared loudly, celebrating his own victory over the enemy.

(BREAK:Ino's POV)

Ino watched in horror as someone she thought she knew became a monster, his chakra was so evil. It shook her to her very core. If It hadn't been for the gaping cut in her leg she would have ran for cover. She didn't think Naruto would hurt her, but she wasn't willing to bet on it at this point. That chakra made him seem like an animal.

Ino's eyes widened when she was suddenly but gently lifted up into the arms of a man she had known for a good portion of her life. Yamashiro Aoba, her fathers only surviving student from his short stint as jonin instructor.

With out saying a word he leapt onto a large building. "What are you doing, go help him!" Ino yelled at special jonin as he sat her onto the rooftop.

"Ino-san, I fear Naruto-san isn't in control of himself, I have to get you out of here." Aoba tried to explain himself, but it was plain to tell he was scared of Naruto.

"No, I am not leaving that baka behind." Ino said defiantly. Sure he was scary right now, but he had saved her life three times now, she wouldn't just leave him.

"Ino-san, I am afraid you don't understand, he isn't himself. It isn't safe to be around him." Aoba argued.

"I can sense his chakra, I know he isn't himself! But he saved my life three times today by using that chakra!" Ino yelled at the man.

"Ino-san that chakra is evil! It could take over his mind! He could kill you!" Aoba yelled at the stubborn girl. He couldn't understand why she would stay, he wasn't even a sensor and he could tell how foul that chakra was.

"He's right. Not about it taking over his mind, but it can hurt you." A monotone voice rang out from behind the two. The man placed a ninjato to the throat of Aoba "Don't move or I'll have to kill you and I have killed enough for today. I only wish to talk now." The man removed the ninjato as a show of faith. "Don't turn around until I'm gone...I would wager Naruto-kun is not in control of his actions at this point. Young jinchuuriki rarely access version two state without letting there bijuu have some control. As soon as he kills Hidan, I can block off the bijuu chakra. He will most likely fall into a coma as a side effect however."

Ino opened her mouth to argue with the man but a harsh glare from Aoba shut her up.

"His bijuu should keep him alive until he comes out of it. When I place him in the coma, you will need to take him somewhere safe, there are people that wish to capture the bijuu, and most of them are in this village now."

The man turned his gaze to the floating ball of purple chakra in front of Naruto. "That is a Tailed Beast Ball... Hidan will be dead soon. Go take cover, I will end this."

Aoba wasn't going to test his luck, he quickly picked Ino up again and began retreating.

He didn't even bother looking at the man, he already knew who it was, he would recognize that voice anywhere. He had just had just been talking with Uchiha Itachi.

**A/N: Okay, done with this chapter. The next one should officially end the prologue arc. Konoha will be officially declared destroyed.**

**Preview of whats to come:**

**The village is gone, there are only twenty-two (give or take) Konoha shinobi left. The land of fire is in extreme military trouble. With every major and minor country wanting to take over the government, what will the newly formed Konoha Mercenary Corps do? What side will they be on?**

**Find out (provided everything goes as planned) Friday December 27****th.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay...late again. This time I have a legitimate excuse, my laptop blew up about three hours after I uploaded the last chapter. I have a gaming desktop pc, but I don't write on it, I am a creature of habit and I can't write on anything other than a laptop. Long story short, I got a new laptop now and will resume writing on a regular schedule.**

**This chapter was supposed to be mostly about the beginning of the attack from Hiruzen's POV, but that bit was lost when my laptop decided to screw me over. So when I got the new one, I just started writing and this came out. The attack will be explained better later on, most likely through flashbacks. Besides, a little mystery behind what happened is good for everyone right? **

**Disclaimer: Maybe I do own Naruto... like if the multiverse theory was true, then who's to say that I don't own Naruto in one of the infinite universes, after all, they are supposed to contain every possibility. So if I, or more effectively, a different elitekamikaze didn't own Naruto then it was never a possibility in the first place, and theoretically anything is possible. So therefore I do in fact own Naruto. I rest my case. P.S: I might piss some people off with this chapter, I'm killing off a lot of well liked characters, people will probably call me a monster, say that I was a demon. But I have a word for those people and that word is...Intelligent. (honestly if I do something with this fic you don't like or you think I'm wrong about, tell me! I will either agree with you, disagree with you but respect your opinion anyway...or I will hunt your ass down and beat the living shit out of you for being such an idiot.) **

Sasuke was not the most...emotional...guy ever. He had spent the last five or so years avoiding his emotion all together, except for maybe anger and hate anyway. So when it came to consoling his pink-haired teammate, (who was currently hugging tightly onto the dead body of her father.) he was at a loss.

Not to say that he didn't understand her pain, hell he probably understood it better than most other people could. He just had no idea how to help her with the pain, or even if he really wanted too. It was true he had grown closer to his teammates over the short time they had spent together, but he still wasn't _that guy_. He wasn't the type to console people, maybe the one to kill the people that hurt them in the first place, but not the one to console them.

Besides he had his own problems to deal with, namely the mini PTSD style flashbacks he was currently suffering from...Okay, maybe he was rationalizing a little, he may be self-centered, but he wasn't selfish enough to think that his flashbacks of something that happened five years ago was anymore important than what was going on right now. But he really didn't want to try and comfort someone, that was just not his thing. And luckily for him, he wouldn't have to.

At the exact moment he was about to try and take care of the sobbing girl, one Yamanaka Ino limped through the front door to Sakura's apartment. This was the first time he had ever been happy to see the "blonde harpy" as Kiba had taken to calling her. Then he noticed the orange figure in her arms.

His jumpsuit had multiple holes, including one large bloody one right in the center. There was a lot of blood under his fingernails. But that wasn't what had Sasuke (he would insist that he wasn't) concerned, His skin appeared as if several layers of it had been burnt clean off.

Sasuke quickly rushed to her side, helping her lay Naruto down "what happened?"

"We...got...attacked by...an asshole." she panted out between her sharp breaths, apparently walking all the way across the village with a hole in your leg could be rather tiring.

Sakura turned from her parents bodies too the blond duo and Sasuke "the attack is still going on?" The pink haired girl asked, her voice sounding hollow and lifeless. She didn't even seem to notice her blood covered dress. The girl was a shell of her former self, it was to be expected though.

If hadn't been for the onslaught of multiple shinobi of equal or greater strength than the Hokage, Ino would still be acting like that. The immeasurable number of ways she could have died in the past 30 minutes or so seemed to have knocked her out of her grief driven depression, for now anyway. Sakura hadn't had that kind of unfortunate (or fortunate, depending how you look at it) luck to help bring her back to reality.

Ino seemed to have finally caught her breath as she sat back against the wall in Sakura's apartment "I'm not really sure...we were attacked by two different people" _'three if you count Itachi _she added mentally before continuing "The first guy was an...Uchiha." Her eyes flicked over to Sasuke to see how he reacted.

The Uchiha's face was disturbing to the young girl, and she just saw a miniature kyuubi destroy several sections of the village and nearly disintegrate an s-rank missing nin. And yet Sasuke's face was by the far the most hate filled and angry face she had ever saw. Quickly realizing that he thought she was talking about Itachi she corrected herself "he said his name was Izuna." With any luck that would help quell some of her crush's anger.

It didn't help much though, Sasuke was shaking with anger, he could feel the sweat forming on his brow as he activated his sharingan. "Izuna died before konoha was even founded." Sasuke almost yelled at the injured Yamanaka. "It was Itachi...Where did you see him at!?" He screamed at her while pulling a kunai from his pouch, ready to charge off to fight his brother.

"It wasn't Itachi Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled at her crush.

"How the hell could you know that!? You don't know what he look likes!" Sasuke yelled back, his fist clinching so tightly he was drawing blood from his own palm.

"I...I can't tell you that!" Aoba had told her the importance of not revealing that Itachi was in the village to Sasuke. He said that the Uchiha would most likely charge blindly at his brother and get himself killed, and that was obviously something she didn't want.

"Tell me where he is now, Ino!"

"It wasn't him Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled with desperation in her voice, she couldn't let him leave the apartment, not if there were more people like Izuna and Hidan out there, or even Itachi, just because he helped them once didn't mean he wouldn't kill them the next time he saw them. The man was obviously unhinged. He did murder his entire clan in cold blood after all.

"Do you have any idea what _that man_ did to me? To my clan? I won't rest until I drive a kunai through his head, not until I feel his blood drying on my hands, just like my mothers blood dried on his." Sasuke shouted at the blonde. Tears were forming in his eyes, that was the first time he had said anything about his mother since he was eight. The woman was angel as far as he was concerned, and nothing would change his mind about that.

This was by far the most emotion Ino had ever see Sasuke show. The boy was usually about as emotional as a boulder, and him showing this other side of himself was making Ino more attracted to the raven haired Uchiha than ever before. It was taking all of her willpower not to force him into hug, but right now wasn't the time for that. She had to distract him with something maybe if sh-

"You're not the only one that lost their mother Sasuke-kun..." Sakura interrupted Ino's thought process, her voice just as hollow and broken as before.

It was at that point Ino realized that the bodies of Sakura's parents were laying in the corner of the room in a bloody heap. Which brought the image of her own mothers body back to the forefront of her mind. And it was that particular distraction that caused her to not sense the chakra filled clay bird flying towards the building at dangerous speeds.

Every flap of it's white wings brought it closer to the apartment complex, in just a few short seconds the bird would hit the building and explode in a expression of art. The anticipation was almost unbearable. So much excitement for a fleeting second of beauty, but thus was the life of an artist. After all, true art is...AN EXPLOSION!

(BREAK)

The village was being destroyed, he had tried to prevent it, but he was too late, too slow. The people were dead, slaughtered like animals. The buildings may still be standing, but if _Leader-Sama_ got his way, they would all burn too the ground before the attack was over. As much as he hated to admit it, the village was a lost cause now. By his estimation, there was maybe thirty or forty shinobi left alive, and that was at best. With the village gone, he had lost his main purpose, and a man without a purpose was a dangerous thing

The kyuubi jinchuuriki was safe for now, and his little brother was being watched by a shadow clone. So that left him with an opportunity he never had before.

There was one thing that he had...no wanted to do. There was man, a man he knew well, a man he wanted to kill. The man was no doubt hiding in his hole underneath the village, holding his personal forces back from protecting the village. It was that man's own twisted way of protecting the village. His own idea's and beliefs, probably something along the line of " if the tree falls, it can grow back stronger than before as long as the roots survive." It was a broken idea, he honestly expected the man was just terrified of losing his own life.

The war he worked so hard to prevent was already happening, and he was going to use it too his, the surviving members of Konoha, and his little brother's advantage. It was time to take his best friend's eye back.

(BREAK)

Raidou, though battered, bruised and tired managed a smirk. He and Genma had done it...they had finally killed Izuna. It hadn't been easy, far from it. In fact, it was the hardest fight he had ever fought. He had been cut, set on fire, stabbed, put in several genjutsu and he was pretty sure he was medically dead for a second or two, but they finally did it. He had managed to stab the man right through his brain, and it was the most satisfying kill he had ever made. He was possibly the happiest he had ever been in his lif- "POP"

'Izuna' burst into a cloud of smoke, revealing himself to be a shadow clone...a fucking shadow clone! WHAT THE HELL! That was the hardest fight of his life and it was a SHADOW CLONE!

"..." Genma's almost comical blank stare met the furious eyes of Raidou

"..."

"...haha" Genma began to chuckle, earning an angry glare from the assassin. "What? It's kind a funny right? In a terrifying sorta way I mean. Just how many times did he almost kill us? Seriously, it's a good thing we didn't fight the real one, huh?"

"..." Raidou didn't respond, he couldn't bring himself to. His chakra levels were nearly depleted, he had watched so many friends and comrades die today that it was ridiculous, then at his first chance at revenge, he failed. It was ridiculous.

Realizing his friend was starting get sucked inside his own head, something he was prone to doing, he decided to ease him into the next thing they needed to do. "We should probably go find Aoba righ-" A powerful explosion went off, rocking the ground under the shinobi's feet.

"Maybe we should check that out first?" Genma asked, his personality reverting back to serious once there was a legitimate danger again.

Raidou nodded, before jumping off towards the explosion with his friend following closely behind.

(BREAK)

Ino's clinched her eyes shut tightly, trying to fight the sudden rush of nausea. Right now, she was moving faster than she ever had. She didn't know what had happened exactly, one second she was in a screaming contest with her long time crush, the next she was being carried by a green blur over the rooftops of Konoha.

The man...men that had taken her didn't have a recognizable chakra signature, but they didn't seem to be trying to kill her...them...Sasuke and Sakura were being carried by the other man and if she wasn't mistaken, Naruto had been thrown over the shoulder of the one carrying her as well. It was almost embarrassing, being carried like a sack of potatoes twice in one day. If it wasn't for the obviously more pressing predicaments she had found herself in today, she would have been rather humiliated.

As the man began to slow, she saw just why they had been taken from the apartment so abruptly. A giant white bird collided with the complex, setting off a large explosion. The bright fiery light blinded her partially, the loud boom of the explosion caused an intense ringing in the girls ears. The concussive blast of air that followed hit her with force, throwing her and presumably everyone and everything else close to her forward.

The world seemed to slow, she could see everything, the explosion, the orange blob identified as Naruto, Sakura's pink hair and Sasuke, the man in green had dropped her and Naruto, and the one with gray hair was quickly trying to get to her and the boy that had saved her life so many times today.

_'Shit...Shit,shit, shit shit shit! He won't make it in time!.' _At the speed she was moving, she would hit the ground before he got to her. Normally she would be able to correct her flight enough to land on her feet anyway, but with the slash in her leg, that kind of movement wasn't possible. It would only end in her further injuring her leg, possibly ending her career as a shinobi. Doing the only thing she knew to do, the young girl tried to relax her body as best she could. The one thought going through her head was _'this is going to hurt like a bitch.'_

Naruto's limp form suddenly erupted with a bright blue icy chakra. The Uzumaki's eyes opened for a split second, gone was the normal blue color that was normally seen, they weren't even red like when he was influenced by that evil chakra either. They were a horrible blank white, almost like a hyuuga, except they were cold, empty...almost dead looking.

The icy blue chakra began to twist and churn, shaping itself into a skeletal hand, similar to the way the kyuubi chakra had done before.

At first Ino expected the hand to attack her, she was waiting for it to kill her. A small part of her might have even wanted it to. The thought of all she had loss, her mother, her home, and most likely her as well, made her question on why she even wanted to continue living in the first place. What was the point? Chances are that she was going to get killed by the end of the day anyway. So she waited, she waited for the hand made of pure chakra to end her short life. It never did though.

Instead, the hand gently took hold of her, stopping her rapid fall. She felt the Icy chakra touch her, it was a terrible sensation, it didn't burn like normal chakra would, in fact it was just the opposite. The chakra was freaking cold, the second it touched her, she became colder than she ever had in her life. And not only that, it was like she could feel it pulling at something inside of her, like the chakra was grasping at her very soul. It was terrifying, truly terrifying. It was almost like the death god himself had a hold of her.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, (when in all actuality it was little more than a second.) the chakra dissipated and skeletal hand dropped her to the ground a mere four feet below. Slightly suicidal thoughts aside, she was happy to be alive, and even happier to be free of the grasp of the skeletal appendage. If anyone had looked or cared to notice, they would have seen strange seal-like markings covering the entirety of Naruto's body.

Just as Ino landed, the gray haired man landed beside her, catching Naruto in the process. Sasuke was the next to land, soon followed by a still hollowed looking Sakura.

"Sasuke, copy this jutsu. Sakura, undo Yamanaka-san's bandages and begin sewing up the cut on her leg." the man held up his hand to Sasuke's sharingan eye, the first two fingers lit up with a strange fire like aura as he spoke.

Sakura mumbled a weak "hai" before trudging over to her former friend and kneeling down to the young girl's leg, she began undoing the blood soaked bandages. Ino squirmed when she felt the needle pierce her skin.

"Hold still." Sakura scolded the Yamanaka princess.

"Sakura...I'm sorry about your parents." Ino began, looking at the broken girl somberly. "I know what your going through...I" the yamanaka bit back a sob "found my mom dead in the flower shop. I know daddy probably died fighting today too..." she trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.

Sakura suddenly wrapped her arms around Ino's neck, pulling the girl into a hug. "Ino... I'm so sorry about the fights over Sasuke-kun...can we be friends again?"

Ino blinked in surprise _'really? That is what she wants to talk about right now?' _"Are you crazy forehead?" Ino took a moment to notice the look of shock and anger that went over the face of her rival, "Of course we can." Ino replied with a smirk. "I still won't let you have Sasuke-kun though."

"Whatever you say Ino-pig." Sakura said with a smirk of her own. The name calling between the two didn't hold any of the anger or malice that it had held in the past.

"You almost done Sakura?" Ino asked, wincing as the needle pierced her skin again. The pink-haired girl nodded "just finished the last stitch."

"Good" Sasuke spoke up from behind "now move." he commanded to his pink haired teammate who quickly complied. Sasuke squatted down, taking in the image of the milky white skin of Ino's upper thigh. He hid it well, but Sasuke had the good decency to blush at the view. "Kakashi said this would hurt..." Sasuke said, reluctantly placing his hand on the girl's leg, stretching the slightly marred skin.

Ino blushed a deep red when her long time crush touched her thigh. It was more embarrassing than she had expected it to be. But to be fair, this was the first time a boy touched her anywhere other than her hand or arm, and it was someone she always dreamed of marrying...and doing other things with.

"Here, bite down on this." Sasuke offered, handing her a kunai.

Ino did so, becoming nervous about Sasuke's new jutsu.

The Uchiha nodded to her, before sending chakra to his fingers in the exact way Kakashi had done before. His pointer and middle finger erupted with a flickering fire-like green chakra "this should keep the wound from reopening." He said, before placing his fingers against the wound.

Ino let loose a whimper the second he touched her skin, _'damn it. Damn it. DAMN IT.' _She mentally shrieked in her head, biting down hard on the kunai. Forget about having the blade of a scythe stabbed halfway through your leg, this hurt a hell of a lot worse than that ever did.

After a couple of seconds of agonizing pain, the 4 inch wound was effectively closed. " Kakashi went back to help your sensei and Gai fight somebody, Me and Sakura are supposed to collect Gai's genin team. He wants you to take Naruto and gather the rest of your team to take them to a rendezvous point at these coordinates." Sasuke relayed the orders of his sensei. Sakura and Ino nodded.

(BREAK)

Itachi charged through the crowd of root nin, cutting them down ruthlessly one by one. Their blood splattered onto the cave walls in an almost art like fashion, if that art was mass murder anyway. It was gruesome display of power, the power gap between Itachi and the average shinobi, he had yet to even activate his sharingan and he had already killed half of the root shinobi...it was kinda ridiculous to be honest.

These root nin weren't weak by no meaning of the word, but compared to Itachi, well, only the top tier shinobi even stood a chance, most shinobi considered talented gave him about as much challenge as a melon. Granted these were probably Danzo's weakest soldiers, but still...

Itachi's katana was soaked in blood by the end of the fight... not that it was much of a fight though, it was much more like a slaughter. The combination of mass genjutsu and incredibly quick kenjutsu attacks ended the conflict quickly with Itachi completely unharmed.

"Itachi." He heard the masculine monotonous voice of the man he had came here to kill come from behind him. The elder shinobi was too late, his plan had already been put in motion, Danzo would die in just a few short minutes, but not before he gave up Shisui's eye.

Itachi turned to face the man, "Danzo-sama." the Uchiha greeted one of the few people who actually knew the truth about him and his motives.

"I trust you have taken care of yourself, with that sickness of yours and all?" Danzo asked with an almost mocking amount of politeness. The elder shinobi was no fool, he knew that Itachi was stronger than him, but he had a trump card in his right eye socket. First to tire him out though.

Without any form of warning, two men leapt from the shadows of the room towards Itachi, their blades poised to pierce his heart. Itachi twisted his body at an impossible anger, grabbing the wrist of both men and redirecting there fight, causing the men to stab each other fatally.

Two more men charged Itachi in a burst of speed. It was still pitifully slow to the sharingan wielder. The first man attempted to stab him with a tanto, only for the Uchiha to flip over his back, grabbing his collar in the process and throwing him violently into the adjacent wall, most likely putting the man in a coma.

The second man quickly went through handseals, _ram-boar-dog-bird-hare- _then he suddenly hit the ground, a small amount of blood was flowing from his ears. The idiot had looked right into the eyes of the genjutsu expert. Well, now was the time to bring out two of his best.

"Fū, Torune." Danzo said, waiting for the his two most trusted shinobi to attack the Uchiha.

Fū was the first to attack, but not being a direct combat shinobi, his main purpose was to be a distraction. The yamanaka attempted to use his family jutsu, but there was a flaw when it came to using something like that against Itachi, you had to aim at their head, which meant they could look you in the eye. That was all it took, one mediocre (By Itachi's stranded anyway.) illusion, and the yamanaka hit the ground. He did his job well though.

Torune rose from the ground behind Itachi, jabbing a kunai into the back of the sharingan wielder's throat. Blood splashed onto the ground, as Itachi grasped at his own throat, desperately trying to breath in the precious oxygen his body needed. Then in the blink of an eye, Itachi exploded, throwing a broken and burned Torune back against the same wall the nameless root nin had hit just a moments ago.

Danzo didn't look surprised, he had expected a clone, that was the one thing that holding him back from using the eye immediately. Suddenly, Itachi appeared behind the elder, his katana in the prefect position to cleave the man in two. With a sicking squelch, the Uchiha cut Danzo from the shoulder to the hip, hitting both lungs and the heart at the same time. And just like magic, Danzo's remains shimmered away '_one...two...three...four...five' _Itachi counted in his head.

Danzo instantly materialized behind Itachi, ready to kill the Uchiha with a well placed kunai strike. The strike was easily blocked by the young Uchiha. Itachi went for a counter, aiming for the mans heart. The elder quickly jumped away from the confrontation.

Danzo was quickly realizing the illness didn't take as much out of Itachi as he had hoped. Perhaps the boy could be reasoned with? It was better if he didn't have to use up all the sharingan in his arm or kotoamatsukami. He was saving that for Madara. "If you kill me, you will be the one destroying Konoha. The roots of the village will allow it to grow back stronger than ever before." The elder said, his voice never wavering, showing he had the utmost confidence in his own words.

Itachi remained motionless for a split second, before his body turned into a murder of crows.

Danzo unwarpped the bandages from his arm and formed a single handseal, before bringing his hand up to his mouth and launching several pockets of air towards the crows. The fast traveling air hit the crows, cutting many of them into pieces, causing smoke to fill the air.

_'fifty-eight fifty-nine sixty.'_ That was just the opening Itachi needed, he suddenly appeared in front of Danzo, their eyes met, and just like that, it was over. Danzo slumped to the ground, his eyes glazed over as tsukuyomi took control. Izanagi, Danzo had deactivated it to preserve chakra, that was a mistake, he underestimated Itachi, he refused to use kotoamatsukami in hopes that his illness would have weakened him significantly. It was this holding back, this fear of losing to Madara, that made him go easy on Itachi for a split second. And it was in that split second that he lost.

Tsukuyomi was a powerful genjutsu, and Itachi was a master of it. if preformed right, the jutsu can leave the strongest of of shinobi incapacitated for several hours, but Danzo wouldn't live that long. Itachi grabbed a hold of the man's short hair, pulling it up to reveal his neck. The Uchiha coldly swung his sword, separating the mans head from his body. Now wasn't the time to remove the eye, knowing Danzo there was probably some kind of trap behind the eye...shit.

A black ink like liquid shot from body of Danzo, as a sealing array came to life on his chest. Itachi felt himself being pulled towards the man, the black liquid began to to form a ball, consuming everything inside it's radius.

Itachi hadn't been prepared for this particular type of trap, so he did the only thing he could think of at the time. With the severed head still in his hand, he bit his thumb and slammed his hand onto the ground, and in less than a second, he was gone in a puff of smoke to the homeland of the crows.

(BREAK)

Sasuke walked through the streets of the Hyuuga compound, trying his best to ignore the similarities between this and the Uchiha massacre. Everywhere he looked, he saw the bodies of men and women form a clan so much like his own, it was terrible. He had no love for the clan, but it was so much like what happened to his own clan. At least it seemed like no one survived this. He knew just how horrible of a fate that was. Sasuke's sharingan eyes suddenly flicked over to what appeared to be a small girl, covered in blood, she was moving...she was running away from him. She was afraid of him.

He began to see himself, running through the bodies of his fellow clansmen again, trying his hardest to find his parents...to find Itachi. He stopped moving all together, tears forming in his eyes. _'Damn it, you have to snap out of this...'_ Sasuke thought to himself angrily. He was an Uchiha, he shouldn't...wouldn't be brought down by something like this.

"Sasuke-kun?" He heard the voice of his pink-haired teammate ring out, it didn't register though. All he could picture was his mother, that long slash across her chest...her blood...so much blood. His hands began to shake again. It was like he was frozen in time, frozen in the worst time of his short life. He wouldn't let another kid suffer by themselves like that.

Meanwhile, Sakura was struggling to maintain her composure, today was defiantly the worst day of her life. Her family was dead, her home and all of her clothes had been blown to bits, and she had seen more dead bodies than most people could even think of. Up until now, she had Sasuke there to help her as well. But now, he was just spacing out, staring at the corner of one clan house. "Sasuke-kun?" she said again, this time louder than before. The boy didn't even look her way. Sakura grabbed a hold of the Uchiha's shoulder and shook him lightly. "Sasuke-kun!" She yelled.

Sasuke's eyes shot to her for a second "Sakura..." he mumbled quietly, finally realizing he wasn't back _there. _"I saw a kid." He said, totally ignoring his strange behavior "stay here." Sasuke took off in a sprint after the girl.

"Sasuke-kun wait!" Sakura yelled to no avail. _'What is going on with him? Well if he thinks I'm just gonna stand here wait around then he has another thing coming. I'll go find the other genin so we can leave.' _Sakura thought angrily.

Her mind made up, Sakura continued trudging through the compound, looking in all corners for anything living. "Lee-san! Tenten-san! Neji-san!" She yelled out, maybe not the best idea considering the circumstances, but damn it she wasn't going to stay here any longer than she had too. Of course she wasn't actually expecting a response, much less did she expect one of the teens she was looking for to land directly in front of her...look at those freaking eyebrows!

"Are you a medic?" The boy with the horrible fashion sense and freakishly large eyebrows asked worriedly. Normally he would have went into rant about the girl was the most beautiful he had ever seen, but not now, not when Tenten was in trouble.

"I...uh...know a some of the basics..." She said, starring at the eyebrows of the newcomer.

"YOSH! YOU CAN SAVE HER THEN!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. He grabbed a hold of her hand, and pulled her flailing body behind the boy as he charged towards his injured teammate. "My teammate got hurt in a fight with some sort of puppet, she would have died if you didn't show up!" He shouted as he ran.

Sakura was beginning to get nervous, this girl is dying, and she didn't even know the mystical palm jutsu, she just barely understood the basics of anatomy, she could stitch up some minor wounds, and maybe even a couple of major ones, but she wasn't good enough to save someones life. She was only twelve, who could possibly heal someone with mortal injuries when they were only twelve?

(BREAK)

Sasuke slowly walked towards the young girl hiding under the bed. She was shaking, her hand was held up defensively "It's okay, I won't hurt you" Sasuke spoke with an unusually soft voice that didn't sound natural. "I understand how you feel...My name is Uchiha Sasuke, my clan was murdered when I was about your age." He got down on his hands and knees so he could see under the bed better. Honestly, all of this felt wrong, this wasn't something he was good at, but he saw so much of himself in that girl's eyes. The same anger, hate and more importantly,the same sadness and fear. The girl was around the same age as he was when he saw this kind of bloodshed. She had suffered a very similar fate.

As soon as the young girl met eyes with Sasuke she let out a yelp and tried to back further under the bed. She clinched her eyes shut tightly, and began to sob. "I-if you're going to kill me...please make it quick Uchiha-sama." she said, tears flowing freely.

Sasuke's eyes widened ever so slightly, that was why he hated the fucking Hyuuga, this girl thought he was going to kill her, and she was still respectful to him. They trained the personality right out of their children. Made them act like little polite robots to the elders. You could say what you wanted about his father, but the man loved and protected kids. After finding out that one of the young Hyuuga clan girls had been married to a seventy-eight year old man when she was only eleven...well that particular man had gone missing and the police force never found any leads.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you." Sasuke said, offering a smile to the young girl. " I just want to help you." He held his hand out to the girl in a gesture of friendship. He'd be damned if he left this girl alone, he wouldn't let her end up like him. That was a terrible life, he knew that from experience.

The girl looked at him for a second before taking a hold of his hand and crawling out from under the bed.

He put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch away. "It's okay, I promise you're safe. Whats your name?" he asked the girl.

"Hanabi..." she sobbed out.

Damn it, she was crying again. He didn't know how to help a crying girl, but he decided to do what he wanted when the same thing happened to him all those years ago. He lifted the shorter girl into a hug, "I will protect you till the day I die Hanabi-chan." Sasuke said, a small tear escaping from his eye those were the same words Itachi had once said to him, before that night. He desperately wanted Itachi to come back, to say those words to him again, to make him feel safe, before the reality that _that man_ never really cared about him set in.

Hanabi looked surprised for a moment, before wrapping her arms around Sasuke tightly. "Thank you Onii-sama!" She said while crying on the shocked Uchiha's shoulder.

Sasuke stood wide eyed, as the girl cried into his shoulder...she had called him big brother...the sibling relationship was precious among the Uchiha clan. He had always wanted a little sibling to protect, to teach, just like _that man _had once done for him. (minus the whole killing everyone you ever loved thing.) Sasuke rubbed the girl's back soothingly, _'I would have been a better sibling than Itachi ever could.' _Sasuke thought, his anger rising once again.

Hanabi adjusted herself on his shoulder, letting out a sigh as she drifted into a deep sleep caused by the emotionally and physiologically straining day she had suffered through.

Sasuke's anger began to disappear as the young girl cuddled into him tightly. He had told her he would protect her, and she trusted him enough to fall asleep so soon. He hadn't slept for weeks after the massacre, he couldn't, the nightmares were far too terrible. But she trusted him enough to drift off to sleep right there, that made something inside Sasuke stir, some sort of primal instinct inside all Uchiha. "Sleep tight...imouto." He said with a small smile. He would treat this girl just like she were his own sister.

(BREAK)

Neji refused to cry. It wasn't what a Hyuuga would do. This was fated to happen, nothing could have changed it. Tenten was weak, that was why she died. It was all fate. There was nothing he could have done to change that. It wasn't his fault, and he didn't care anyway. Fate has decreed what was going to happen, and he would never cry about his fate again, so why was this damned liquid falling from his eyes? Hyuugas don't cry, especially over the death of a weak teammate. But yet here he was, crying like a baby. He wasn't supposed to get close to anyone, he was supposed to be detached. And he was, to an extent anyway, he didn't feel anything when his whole clan had been killed, but the death of one weak, meaningless girl had him feeling so bad. It was utterly ridiculous that a mighty Hyuuga could be brought to their knees so easily.

He was brought from his thoughts at the sight Lee and some random pink haired girl, with Lee shouting some sort of nonsense about how he could save Tenten now. "It's too late Lee, she's dead." Neji spat bitterly.

"What? Tenten is dead?" Lee said as he rushed over to Tenten's side, tears already starting to from. He grabbed a hold of her shoulders, shaking them gently, "come on Tenten, stop goofing around around, wake up...Come on Tenten, WAKE UP!" Lee screamed at the dead girl, grasping her tightly. "Tenten...please, don't die." The boy pleaded with the corpse.

Neji stood and walked over to the hysterical boy, he understood what was wrong with him, he had almost done the same thing a few minutes ago. But he also knew Lee, and he knew the green clad boy wouldn't just leave her behind, there really was only one option. With a small sad smile, Neji hit lee in the back of the neck, knocking him out. "Sorry Lee." he said, as he hoisted the green clad boy over his shoulder.

Sakura watched the interaction sadly, she couldn't imagine how she would feel if one of her own teammates had died, she would hazard a guess it would be very much like how Lee did...and Sasuke would probably act just like Neji.

"Uchiha! Get your hands off of Hanabi-sama!" Neji's sudden shout brought Sakura out of her musings. Her eyes followed his to the sight of Sasuke, holding what she would guess to be a girl around six years old in his arms.

Neji rushed towards the Uchiha, intent on taking her from his arms, it was his duty, she was the one of the last living main branch members, it was his duty to protect her, and that included protecting her from a budding 'psychopath' like the Uchiha. Neji went to grab the sleeping girl, only to be stopped by a glare from sharingan eyes.

"You touch her, and I'll cut your throat out." There was no anger or hate behind those words, just a threat that he fully intended to keep. He wouldn't let someone he didn't trust near her, he made a promise to that scared little girl...to his imouto and he was going to keep it. There was no way in hell Neji was getting Hanabi out of his arms.

Neji had a different perspective however "Drop Hanabi-sama now Uchiha. I will protect her from the likes of you." He said angrily.

"I know who you are Hyuuga Neji, I know of your hate for the main branch family, you're just as likely to kill her as protect her." Sasuke said, his anger starting to rise again. He would kill the Hyuuga if need be.

"You don't know anything Uchiha! I just watched my teammate die, I won't let some psychopath take away one of the last people I have!" Neji yelled, his true emotions finally breaking through. He knew about the Uchiha curse of hatred, every Hyuuga did, it was one of the many reasons they hated the Uchiha so much. He couldn't be trusted with a child.

"Enough! You're both wanting to protect the little girl, so why are you fighting?" Sakura yelled out, annoyed by the threats being thrown around. Both boys glared at each other, their respective dojutsu made the act quite intimidating to normal people, but Sakura wasn't a normal person, she was a kunoichi, and a very pissed off one at that. "Now both of you shut up and lets get to that fucking rendezvous point!" the twelve year old girl shouted, she had been standing around a bunch of dead bodies long enough. They were going to leave here if she had to knock them out and drag them away herself.

(BREAK)

Kakashi stood among the reaming forces of Konoha, they were few, but they stood tall, ready to fight to death if need be. Among the proud men were Sarutobi Asuma, son of the third hokage, Maito Gai, taijutus master, Shiranui Genma, space time ninjutsu genius, Namiashi Raidou, master assassin, and Yamashiro Aoba, veteran intelligence officer.

These men found themselves facing impossible odds, four of the strongest men on the planet stood opposite to them, ready to kill everyone one who would dare to cross their path. Kisame, Kakuzu, Sasori, and Diedara, four members of Akatsuki, presumably the organization responsible for destroying the village.

"Kakashi," Gai began a serious look on his face "Konoha can live on through it's people, you are much more fit to lead than anyone else. You know what I have to do right?" He asked his long time friend.

"Gai...I will put your name on the memorial stone personally, when the time comes." Kakashi said, looking at the grave expression the face of the eccentric man's face. Every part of Kakashi was screaming at him to tell Gai they would stand and fight together, but they were all exasuted, and chances are they all would die and leave the kids on their own. He couldn't let that happen, not as a sensie or as a leader.

"Genma, you were my teammate for years...I entrust the training of my students to you." Gai said with a smile, before beginning to charge up chakra.

Kakashi patted the man on the back, then he threw several smoke bombs along the ground, concealing everyone in the dense cloud.

It was easy for all the elite jonin to pick up on what the plan was, the instant the smoke bombs popped, they all jumped in separate directions. The plan was a simple one, one man stays behind and tires to fend off and kill as many as he can, while the rest of them split up and take different routs to the same place. Of course against such strong opponents, this plan shouldn't have worked, but when Gai was the man staying behind, that changed things. The man was fast by himself, but he could open the eight gates, all eight gates.

As soon as the smoke entered the air, Gai began the process, _'First Gate: Gate of Opening: OPEN!' 'Second Gate: Gate of healing: OPEN!' 'Third Gate:Gate of Life: OPEN!' 'Fourth Gate: Gate of Pain: OPEN1' Fifth Gate: Gate of Limit: OPEN!' 'Sixth Gate: Gate of View: OPEN!' 'Seventh gate: Gate of Gate of Wonder: OPEN! _"EIGHTH GATE: GATE OF DEATH: OPEN!" As he finished the ritual, Gai exploded into action.

(BREAK)

Mifune was well known in both the samurai and shinobi world for a good reason. He was one of the most powerful men in the world. Not because of some all mighty jutsu or such prowess that he could kill a kage level nin with ease. No, he was as powerful as he was because he was the commander and chief of the single largest army that the elemental nations had ever seen.

He didn't get this position because through deceit or being the single strongest warrior in his country, he got this position because he deserved it. He had spent years as a strategist for the previous general, and because of his great foresight and cunning they had one many many wars. But there was a secret to his foresight. It was a little known fact that Mifune was a very religious man, and he was one of the few that still took heed when the gods gave him a sign. And right now, he knew he was getting the biggest sign he ever had.

His eyes took in the amazing sight of hundreds, if not thousands of doves flying around the castle he called home. "Okisuke!" He commanded for his most trusted samurai and second in command of his armies to come his side.

The bald man appeared before his master and kneeled down before the man he proudly served "Mifune-sama?" he asked, dutiful as ever.

"Tell the men to be prepared for battle...Hachiman the war god has awoken!" As those words were said, a single dove flew down from its group and landed onto the tsuka (handle) of Mifune's katana.

**A/N: The tides of war will soon engulf the elemental nations, and no one will be safe from the fourth great shinobi war. **

**I Know this entire prologue reads kind of rushed. (to me anyway) but that is because I am writing faster than I should because I really want to get to my first real story arc, I have the entire thing planned out and it's killing me not being able to write it right now. Also, who has a guess what is going on with Naruto's chakra? It ain't a bloodline, but it does have something to do with the Uzumaki clan.**

**There will be a bit of time skip next chapter, not sure how long yet, anywhere from 2 and a half months to 6 months. Either way, it will start with Naruto's coma expreince and he will wake up with a certain amount of time having passed. I ain't even gonna say when the next chapter will be up though. **

**As always thanks to all those that have reviewed and thanks to those that will, you have no idea how much your reviews mean to me. It really inspires me to keep going with this and my dream of being a professional novelist. I defiantly appreciate all of you greatly.**


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